LETTER XXVIII.

THE ANSWER.

DEAR MADAM,-Whilst I sympathise with you, I must also use the privilege of a friend, and admonish. The truth is-and, though truth, like medicine, is generally unpleasant, it must nevertheless, like medicine, be sometimes administered - the truth is, you spoil all your governesses. You do, indeed.

I, who have had a large experience of that sort of people, know it. Only a week ago, I saw Sinclair in the Park, talking with another governess. As your friend, I took the liberty of asking her who she was? She replied-I thought very boldly—an old schoolfellow. Upon which I told her you would be very angry if you knew of the indiscretion. That, as a governess, she had no longer anything to do with schoolfellows, and should speak to nobody but to the young ladies. That it was her duty, as a young woman of principle-and I dwelt, as you know I can dwell, upon the word-upon principle, to cut herself off from the rest of the world, and study nobody but you and the dear children. My idea of a good governess, I observed, is, that she should be a sort of nun engaged upon wages; a person vowed to humility, gentleness, and resignation, for so much salary. That she should mix in the world as though she were no part of itself-removed from its pleasures and its sympathies; in fact, as a sort of machine ordained by Providence to await the behests of those ordained above her. Upon this, she dropt her eyelids, I thought, very insolently, and, with a smile not to be mistaken, turned away. Never, my dear madam, let your governess talk with another governess. Depend upon it, their conversation is always about their employers; and such is the ungrateful spirit of the people, I fear me always to their detriment. Besides, I have known the scarlet fever brought into a house by such a practice.

You will also pardon me, when I tell you that you are not sufficiently discreet as to the age of your governesses. Morris, I remember, who preceded Sinclair, must at least have been seven-and-thirty; whilst Sinclair cannot have been more than one-and-twenty. Now, a governess should never be chosen younger than five-and-twenty, or older than five-and-thirty. The intermediate time may be called the prime of governess-life. If you get them younger, their heads are full of most

preposterous notions about affections, and sympathies, and what they call yearnings for home. Like unweaned lambs, they are always bleating and unsatisfied. At five-and-twenty, the governess-mind knows better what is due to itself and employer, and with a strong hand plucks up such weaknesses as unprofitable weeds; at least, if it doesn't, it ought. After five-andthirty, the governess gets slow and prosy, and her heaviness may dangerously infect the light-heartedness of the dear children-therefore, she is not to be thought of an hour longer. Immediately supply her place with a junior teacher, as you value the morals and accomplishments of your beloved family.

If, in the course of ten years, with a salary of, let us say, twenty pounds a-year, out of which she has only to buy clothes fit to keep company with the children, the governess has not saved a sufficiency for her declining age—it is but too painful to know that she must have been a very profuse, improvident person. And yet, I fear me, there are lamentable instances of such indiscretion. I myself, at this moment, know a spendthrift creature who, as I have heard, in her prime-that is, for the ten years-lived in one family. Two of her pupils are now countesses. Well, she had saved next to nothing, and when discharged, she sank lower and lower as a daily governess, and at length absolutely taught French, Italian, and the harp, to the daughters of small tradesmen, at eighteen-pence a lesson. In time, she of course got too old for this. She now lives somewhere at Camberwell, and, though sand-blind, keeps a sixpenny school for little boys and girls of the lower orders. With this, and the profits on her cakes, she contrives to eke out a miserable existence-a sad example, if they would only be warned, to improvident governesses.

I am now called away, and am therefore unable to answer your letter to the full. However, you shall have another epistle on the subject to-morrow.

Your's always,

DOROTHEA FLINT.

LETTER XXIX.

FROM THE HON. MRS. FLINT TO LADY HONORIA ASPHALT,

ON THE CHOICE OF A GOVERNESS.

DEAR MADAM,-I resume my pen to finish my subject; and as I have had considerably more experience than yourself in the article of governesses, I will briefly tell you how I have always dealt with these people. You will then be able to contrast my practice with your own. Like myself when a very young mother, you have been too considerate—too yielding. Firmness, dear madam, firmness is the first essential-young governesses are as difficult to break as young horses; but it is to be done.

I told you that I always had my suspicions of Sinclair's German-I am sure it was not the true Saxon. Now I have never engaged a governess unless she had acquired French, German, and Italian, in their separate countries. Nothing like studying a language on its proper soil, otherwise the accent of the children becomes irretrievably ruined. It was only last

week that my dear friend, Lady Dinah Grosbeak, called me in to examine a candidate for the place of daily governess. The creature had certainly learned French in Paris, but she knew no more of Florence or Dresden than the city giants. She played the piano remarkably well, and brought excellent testimonials to her knowledge of thorough-bass. She sang, too, very nicelyand if the water-colour paintings she produced were really her own-they were-for I always like to do justice to everybody— very pretty. However, with all her accomplishments, humility was not among them, for what do you think she asked of Lady Dinah to attend only her three children as daily governess? Positively, thirty pounds a year, and by way of climax-her. dinner!

However, to proceed with my own experience. Knowing the artifice of governesses-feeling assured that it is necessary to be quite alive to their whims and caprices, I always made it a principle to deduct their salary for any week or even day of illness. Bless you, madam, without this precaution, there is no knowing what one might lose in sham fevers and surreptitious headaches. Let your governess be aware of your inflexibility on this point, and be assured she is never ill; or if she is, it is all the same, you never hear of it. Again: I never allowed a bell in the bed-room of a governess-otherwise, the poor servants

would, I knew, be continually rung up and down. No; if the governess wanted anything, she could certainly somehow get it, without raising the house for it. On one occasion, too, when we left town-leaving some of the children at home-I gave to the governess a proper dietary; a certain scale of food which it was my order was not to be departed from. As I had to pay for the meat, bread, butter, milk, &c., to be consumed, I was of course the only fitting judge of the quantity—that is, for a governess.

There are, however, occasions when appearances may justify a little extra outlay on a governess. For instance, when my dear father died—ah, madam! if ever there was a true Christian, he was one-I made my person a present of a dress and bonnet. In fact, I had three dresses, for my maid, the nurse, and governess, all alike. A little liberality of this sort towards our fellow-creatures is, after all, not lost in this world, and can do us no harm in the next.

Whenever it was necessary that my governess should join any of my little social parties, I, of course, never introduced her. No-it was perfectly well understood who she was, and she was never drawn out of her place-never for a moment confounded with any of the ladies present. It is convenient, too, now and then, to have these persons with you: they relieve a dull moment or so in an evening, when desired to take the stool and play. And even here, one must be very guarded, less the governess forgets herself. I remember, on one occasion, a governess I had-a pale, puling thing, with large blue eyes and flaxen hair, and, by the way, a cough that entirely made her singing a bad bargainI remember that, whilst she played, she once suffered my nephew Adolphus to turn the music! But when we retired, didn't I school her! She had red eyes for a fortnight.

I had written thus far, when I received a letter that accompanies this. It is from a young woman who has never yet been from home. She has been splendidly brought up, but her father would speculate in hops or some such things, and they are all beggars. Having a sort of feeling for the family, and hearing that the girl must go into the world, I wrote to her-with a view to your service-asking her notions of the duties and responsibilities of a governess-the treatment she expected, &c. &c. You will read her reply. It is exquisite. Quite a leaf from an old French romance. Poor thing! with such ideas, what will become of her? I will, however, look somewhere else for you; in the mean time, Believe me, yours always,

DOROTHEA FLINT.

L

LETTER XXX.

FROM A YOUNG LADY DESIROUS OF AN ENGAGEMENT AS
FAMILY GOVERNESS.

MADAM, It is, indeed, true that the sudden and total wreck of my father's fortune renders it necessary for me to earn my own bread; and, unhappily, not mine alone. Your letter, kind madam, came like a sunbeam upon our darkened dwelling. Now, indeed, do I feel grateful-past expression-for the few attainments I possess, for they will enable me to bear with cheerfulness the change prepared for me. They will raise me above the indifference and contempt of the world; and whilst they supply me with the means of honourable existence-and what, indeed, so honourable, so truly lofty, as a life dedicated to the mind of childhood ?-they may haply not be deemed wholly useless to others. I am now tranquil-decided. When the truth first came upon me that I must henceforth exist by my own exertions, I own it, old vanities-the follies born of fortune -clung for a moment closer to me. But I have laid apart false pride like a masque-night garment. I am instantly prepared to begin my working life.

You ask my notion of the duties, the cares, the responsibilities of a governess. Alas, madam! it is a contemplation of their seriousness, nay, of their solemnity, that makes me pause— falter, in my hopes. I cannot but fear my own unworthiness for the task-it is so vital. For is not the mind of childhood the tenderest, holiest thing, this side heaven! Is it not to be approached with gentleness, with love,-yes, with a heart-worship of the great God from whom, in almost angel-innocence, it has proceeded? A creature undefiled by the taint of the worldunvexed by its injustice-unwearied by its hollow pleasures? A being fresh from the source of light, with something of its innocent lustre in it? If childhood be this-how holy the duty to see that, in its onward growth, it shall be no other! To stand, as a watcher at the temple, lest any unclean thing shall enter it. This, surely, is one of the loftiest duties that can elevate infirm humanity; and this duty is especially required of him or her who tends upon the growing mind of youth: it is a task that, however misunderstood by the many, ennobles the doer. I know that all the world thinks not thus. I know, alas! that there are mothers who place their mere jewellery under